Former Tory minister Maria Caulfield defects to Reform

Former Conservative health minister Maria Caulfield has become the latest Tory to join Nigel Farage’s Reform UK Party.

Caulfield lost her seat to the Lib Dems at last year’s general election after nearly nine years as the MP for Lewes.

She told GB News she joined Reform a month ago because the Conservative Party had become “less and less what I believe in”.

Reform confirmed she has joined as a member. Caulfield is the 15th former Tory MP to join the party.

The latest defection comes after Danny Kruger, who sat on Tory leader Kemi Badenoch’s team as a shadow work and pensions minister, became the first sitting Tory MP to defect on Monday.

Caulfield told GB News: “The [Reform] party needs a lot of experience of people who know the system and can talk about this.”

“If you are Conservative right-minded, then the future is Reform. The country is going to change a lot,” she said.

“The same people who thought that Brexit would not happen think that Reform will not happen. They are in for a shock.”

She added: “I am sad for the Conservative Party. I could see that I have not changed but the party has become less and less what I believe in.”

Responding to the defection, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch told broadcasters: “Conservatives are the only party that are talking about how we need to deliver a stronger economy, living within our means, cutting welfare spending.

“We have got a plan to start getting growth back – Labour do not, and Reform are merely focused on Westminster bubble issues about who is in which party.

“That’s not going to make life better for all the people out there.”

Caulfield is a Brexit supporter and quit her role as Tory vice chair in protest at Theresa May’s 2018 attempt at a softer withdrawal from the EU, known as the Chequers deal.

At the time, she told May her plan would not capitalise on the opportunities of Brexit.

She has previously served in a number of junior ministerial roles, including as a health minister.

Her appointment by May as minister for women in 2018 sparked a backlash from women’s rights groups because of her opposition to decriminalising abortion.

James MacCleary, the Liberal Democrat who won Caulfield’s seat in Lewes last year, said the move showed Farage “doesn’t care about our NHS” because “the Conservatives left our NHS on its knees”.

He added: “Rather than offering solutions to the problems our country faces, Reform seems to be welcoming in the people that were responsible for causing them in the first place.”

The BBC has contacted Caulfield for comment.